Times Daily not immune to economic woes

It's no secret the print newspaper business is sinking and sinking fast. One only has to read the national headlines to see newspapers across the country are going out of business by the bushel.

The Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Baltimore Sun, have all filed for bankruptcy protection this past month. The New York Times, parent company of the Times Daily, has had to mortgage its' building to stay afloat. Millions of people are going to the internet, instead of print, to get their news. Why buy the cow when the milk is free?

The Times Daily's financial woes have been well hid from its' readers. The first sign came a couple of weeks ago when T. Wayne Mitchell, Executive Editor, mentioned in his weekly column that the Editorial Page Editor, Robert Palmer, is retiring. Palmer is not the only one. Gary Messner, Operations Director is retiring too. According to folks in the know at the Times Daily, the brass have been offering retirement packages to employees for quite some time. Palmer is not at retirement age. Messner is.

A couple of months ago the Times Daily started to farm out the PrePress department. The PrePress department builds ads and lays out the newspaper, creates graphics, etc.. The department went from seven to one employee. From what we gather, Tuscaloosa will do some of the work.

One of our writers contacted Wayne Mitchell about the PrePress jobs. He said "What is the Shoals Insider? No comment."

Our boss has several friends at the Times Daily. We wish them all the best.

Some people at the TD have told us they foresee a day when they will be online only with a weekly condensed version.

We hear a lot of complaints about the TD. I'm sure they hear some about us, but, it would be hard to imagine the Shoals without a daily newspaper.